Resurgence of the X-Files

It’s nice to see the resurgence of one of my favourite television shows the X-Files, but even so, to know that it has resumed shooting in the Lower Mainland and recently near Seabird Island. Finally, my childhood dream of appearing as an extra on the show or meeting the cast and crew doesn’t seem so far away. Regardless or not if that dream ever comes to fruition, it is comforting to know my childhood heroes are near at hand and still trying to understand the unknown forces of the universe.

From my tweens to teens, I remember the joy of watching Mulder and Scully F.B.I., solve, or attempt to get to the bottom of what has become a huge cult following.

I followed the X-Files religiously during its initial run which lasted an astounding nine seasons. I was constantly in awe of the dynamic and complimentary if not opposite duo of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. The show has remained a comfort over the years, seeing me through some interesting times — often just knowing the type of $#@! that Mulder and Scully were handling on a regular basis, made my problems seem more palatable, whatever they were. I was like, well, if they can do it and look that good, there might be hope for the rest of us.

Childhood friends were just as addicted to the show as I was, as we sucked it up, absorbed and vegged out in front of the television for countless, perhaps even hundreds of hours taking in plots about alien conspiracies, government cover-ups, monsters, missing links and just about everything in the genre of the weird, chilling, and macabre.

I spent many Friday evenings with chills and goosebumps while experiencing the sheer delight of being scared for the agents and the possible aliens that might visit me at night after the show finished and I was alone in my room for the evening (wondering if it would be my turn for an alien abduction.) I waited patiently for the episode to unfold, dreading commercials, and often sadly tearing up at the end, knowing that I would have to wait another week to see what trouble was ahead for the pair of agents.

I was not alone in my passion for the X-Files. In fact, the world got on board, campaigning to see their favourite agents come back from the abyss of hit shows gone by. Season ten aired a few months back and season 11 is in the process of filming — though the agents have aged a bit, they seem eerily the same, almost as though a decade or more has not passed.

The effect is almost like a time warp. In some ways it feels as though the near two decades in between never happened. Could this possibly be a conspiracy in itself? Who knows. That’s the beauty, the show doesn’t spoon feed its endings, it often leaves the interpretation up to the audience, giving the audience its due credibility as being reasonably intelligent, and that’s why we love the X-Files.

It’s an intelligent show and the characters are believable even though the reality of the show challenges the audience to continuously suspend its disbelief for an hour — but they make it work and they look good doing it.